This Year's Theme: The Clean Water Blueprint

This year's artwork, Animal Architects, depicts some of the Bay's most iconic species working together on a plan for a better Bay—the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint. But this is more than just a fanciful image. In fact, the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint may just be the best shot we've ever had at restoring the waters and tributaries of Chesapeake Bay, to support healthy populations of Bay-area wildlife, and to re-fuel the tanks of the massive economic engine that the Bay drives.

So what is the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint? In short, the "Blueprint" is a combination of science-based limits on certain types of pollution and the collective plans of the Bay-states (Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia) and their localities to meet those pollution limits. Learn more about the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint.

While the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint is tightly focused on reducing sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorous pollution, and Clean the Bay Day focuses on reducing litter pollution, they both succeed on some of the very same principles.

First of all, they both work on the same, very simple ethic: We all have a role in creating pollution; and we can all play a role in reducing that pollution. Once people see that, cleaning up after ourselves just makes common sense. And it becomes clear: It's the right thing to do.

And when we all come together to clean up, we realize something: It's a lot easier when we work together! As the old expression goes: Many hands make light work.

One more similarity—they are both working! Clean the Bay Day sites see sustained improvement over the years. While at first volunteers are going in to remove large items like appliances and auto parts, over time the sites yield less debris and require a lighter spring cleaning. Similarly, we have seen big improvements from Bay-state cooperation so far, like improvements in the reduction of polluted runoff and an increase in best management practices on farms.

But there is still a lot of work to do to make the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint a success. And just like Clean the Bay Day, it won't work without YOUR help! ……

Commit to doing your part—join more than 35,000 others and sign the petition to support a clean Bay, rivers, and streams.

THANK YOU so much for your interest in improving our waters. And thank you for taking action.